The present invention relates to a ratchet wrench having structural components which include both metals and plastics compositions. More particularly, the invention is directed to a ratchet wrench having a plastics body and handle with cooperating reinforcing and augmenting outer metal plate structures as well as a metal bar contained within the molded wrench body and the wrench handle.
Ratchet wrenches with bodies or body components of plastics material are not unknown in the art, and such tools have take various forms and structural arrangements. In some of these tools, mechanical strength has been sacrificed or compromised to achieve weight reduction and to reduce production costs. In others, the adoption of plastics as a structural medium has not been without a sacrifice of durability and functional reliability. The recognized advantages inherent in the adoption of plastic as a structural medium in a fabrication of tools such as ratchet wrenches notwithstanding, no completely satisfactory composite structural assembly has heretofore been devised. It is, therefore, a principal aim of the present invention to provide a ratchet wrench having a body, including a head portion and a handle of plastics composition, in combination with outer and internal metal components so that functional reliability and structural strength are ensured and shortcomings and inadequacies of prior art devices are obviated.